one hankie to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
So today in class we were talking about Othello and especially about the symbolism of Desdemona's handkerchief, and the points got raised that a) it almost seems to have its own agency, and b) people who've come into possession of it are affected morally or otherwise behave unusually (e.g. Emilia conceals the fact that she found it, Cassio acts like a jerk to Bianca, and even Desdemona fibs for the only time in the play, when she's lost it). And according to Othello, anyway, the possessor of it gains a certain power over others:
That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it,
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
Or made gift of it, my father's eye
Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies...
Granted he may well be bullshitting -- after all, the hankie does not become important until Iago makes an issue of it -- but nevertheless I have come to this conclusion:
Desdemona's hankie acts almost exactly like the One Ring.
I totally want to teach Othello now, so I can use that in class. ;)
ETA: I forgot to mention that, according to Emilia, Desdemona "reserves it evermore about her / To kiss and talk to." That certainly sounds like the behavior of Gollum with his precious to me, doesn't it? ;)
That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people: she told her, while she kept it,
'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father
Entirely to her love, but if she lost it
Or made gift of it, my father's eye
Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt
After new fancies...
Granted he may well be bullshitting -- after all, the hankie does not become important until Iago makes an issue of it -- but nevertheless I have come to this conclusion:
Desdemona's hankie acts almost exactly like the One Ring.
I totally want to teach Othello now, so I can use that in class. ;)
ETA: I forgot to mention that, according to Emilia, Desdemona "reserves it evermore about her / To kiss and talk to." That certainly sounds like the behavior of Gollum with his precious to me, doesn't it? ;)